Rather than bring the country together, this fomented something of a culture war, as small business owners felt they were labeled cheats and Morneau mulled removing measures such as income splitting.

Morneau has since been fined by the ethics commissioner for violating two provisions of the Conflict of Interest Act related to his failure to properly disclose a French villa. He’s also now under a separate investigation for sponsoring a bill on pension benefits while indirectly holding shares in his family company that could potentially benefit from the bill.

Then we learned the shocking news the Canada Revenue Agency wanted to tax low-income earners for the employee discounts they receive on products purchased at their own stores, including meals and clothing. It was one of the meanest examples of nickel-and-diming the little guy Canadians have seen in a long time.

Adding insult to injury, the release of The Paradise Papers revealed many rich Canadians have off-shore accounts in tax havens that allow them to legally avoid paying the same tax rates paid by middle-class Canadians.

So tax loopholes are OK for the rich, but not for the little guy?

All this has undermined Canadians’ confidence in our tax system, and not surprisingly a new Nanos poll shows a majority of Canadians believe “Liberal economic policies favour upper-income rather than lower-income people.”

This Week's Flyers

Comments

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.